Christian Nationalism or the Work of Abundant Life
When we began the work of campus ministry, UNO looked very different.
In my first year of ministry, 2008, we did a little bit of campus ministry—about ten hours a week—which had obvious limits. At that time, I tried to meet with the staff in charge of places like the Women’s Center or the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), because that was the kind of work I had done at Southern Methodist University.
But UNO didn’t have Higher Education staff for those areas of student life. They had perhaps a team of students. Maybe one of them was paid; maybe not.
Fast-forward to 2015 we started a full-time campus ministry in Omaha and Rev. Chris Jorgensen helped us lay the foundation. Now UNO has more student housing. It was becoming a more traditional campus than it had ever been. Along with that came staff for things like the Women’s Center and the work supporting queer and trans students.
Two years later, as Rev. Chris moved on to a more traditional church gig Sierra joined our team. As an alum she already had an in with the department leaders and by this time those offices were not only staffed by administrators but were flourishing. They were growing, thriving, doing vital work, making space for joy and luckily, we got to join in the fun. That year UNO students hosted a regional summit for queer students in the Midwest. They were phenomenal, a model to other campus communities in Omaha regarding building safe, inclusive space. And they modeled partnering with innovative non-profits, engaged the whole community and made the city their campus.
Funding & De-Funding
That’s what institutional investment means. The supportive structures for students expanded. And having administrative staff didn’t diminish the student voice but strengthened it. The Women’s Center had diapers for student-parents and access to menstrual hygiene products. There were pregnancy tests and access to resources for people who needed help with name changes and sexual assault complaints. The safe space extended far and wide, and we partnered with the University’s efforts to support Dreamers, veterans, conversations about racial justice and so much more.
But in the last few years, all of that has come under fire.
First, the administrative roles were eliminated. Students called us for support as they organized. Once the staff disappeared, these programs became student-led. Then budgets began to be cut. Students rallied and the budgets were reinstated but none of the requests to use the budgets were granted—including hygiene products like the diapers that students might need for their babies. Students once able to easily access tangible support now wanted more than a partnership with Urban Abbey. Now our Campus Minister, Sarah, not only gave a listening ear to worried young adults but also found them hygiene products, contraception and accompanied students through the process of changing names.
No, they had a plan.
It might seem like, Wow. How did we get here? It might seem surprising or even shocking, as though a bunch of random decisions were made.
Except that it absolutely is not random.
It is planned. It is intentional. It is organized. And the folks interfering with our public schools have been organizing for a long time.
There is a legal case that really sets the Christian Right in motion, one that draws what may have been seen as fringe or extreme to the center of power. In the late 1970’s, Bob Jones University goes to trial for its racist enrollment practices and while they ultimately lose their case in the Supreme Court, the fundamentalist-evangelical Christian right realizes they have real political power if they organize. And they do,
We see this in the work of the Heritage Foundation. We see it in the money that flows abundantly into religious organizations characterized by high control, pervasive conversations about shame and a strong sense of hierarchy. These churches ‘should’ all over folks weekly deploying a ‘divinely’ inspired cocktail of shame and fear weekly. They know how you should live, look or be in the world. It becomes about policing bodies and behavior much more than it becomes about living in the way that Jesus lived.
Ten, twenty or thirty years ago; these organizations holding real power might have seemed silly. Or maybe the mainline church was too polite to say, “no” when para-church groups like FCA and Navagators, started convincing folks that their churches weren’t really Christian enough. Maybe mainline folks were too naive to understand that Promise Keepers’ obsession with men leading and women obeying was a problem for women and men beyond their organization. Maybe Focus on the Family seemed helpful and purity balls were just trying to keep girls safe. Maybe the obsession with saving souls and watching Kirk Cameron scare folks into not being left behind just didn’t seem more silly than dangerous.
Maybe we were too nice. Maybe we were too naive. Maybe we were too friendly to call things out. Maybe we didn’t trust church people enough to have deeper theological conversations. Maybe folks tried but the conversations towards more expansive theologies were too hard. Maybe trying to talk about God as a mother or the immigrant as our neighbor or God’s love including all people lead to conflict; no matter how many casseroles folks may bring to the pot-luck. Maybe we didn't have the tools or want to listen. But now we know better.
A theology characterized by strong hierarchy, high control, and limits on people's experience of themselves and of the world is not grounded in Jesus. Jesus taught a love that risks, that breaks down walls, that sets the oppressed at liberty, seeks abundance. Jesus taught love, not love of power, not love of authority, not love of money.
And now it is all around us and they are not backing away, they are pushing further. And they are doing exactly what they planned.
Which means that we have to start being intentional, too. We have to start having a plan, too.
Making a Plan
Baptist leader, Amanda Tyler is among the people organizing against Christian nationalism. Her text, How to End Christian Nationalism has eight steps for responding to Christian nationalism.
Name and understand the problem
Ground yourself in God’s Love
Denounce Violence
Commit to separation of church and state
Take on Christian Nationalism close to home
Organize for change
Protect Religious Freedom in Public Schools
Take your place in the public Square
I think if we get really serious, we can probably fix this in eight to ten business days. Kidding it may take a little longer.
Name the problem.
Name that we are unsure, or that we feel differently about something. Name that it shocks us that there are women gathering to think about how to give their vote back to their husband (Turning Point USA convention). Name that we see how the attacks on reproductive healthcare are deadly. Name that loving guns more than keeping kids safe is not Christian.
Then she says to ground yourself in God’s love. This is the work of groundedness in love—in the practices and teachings of Jesus. It is the work of announcing violence for what it is and committing to the separation of church and state.
It means taking on Christian nationalism close to home. That might mean having a conversation at Thanksgiving in a loving, caring way. Or at least committing not to acquiesce. Committing to say, “I feel differently.”
It means taking on Christian nationalism, organizing with others for change, protecting religious freedom in our schools, and taking your place in the public square.
Taking our Place in the Public Square
In the last several years, Gab and I have been at the Capitol and have invited as many other pastors as we can into the conversation. There have been four successive bills concerning public education that would infringe upon the separation of church and state.
LB 122, introduced by Senator Meyer, would require all public schools to display the words “In God We Trust” in classrooms
LB 549, introduced by Senator Lippincott, would allow unlicensed pastors or “chaplains” to serve as school guidance counselors in public schools.
LB 691, introduced by Senator Murman, would require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
A bill in other states not making it to testimony that would allow students to leave school in the middle of the day to receive credit for attending church bible studies.
Talking about the Ten Commandments
Now, I will say that it was perhaps surprising when I addressed this with Senator Murman in the hearing. He did not in fact know that, in his very Bible, no matter what translation he may use, there are two different versions of the Ten Commandments. He also did not know every denomination has a preference for the translations they would teach and there are certainly differences between Protestant and Catholic versions, not to mention taking into account what you may find within the Jewish tradition, which perhaps in fact should be privileged if any version is to be printed out for the purposes of teaching ‘history.’
The senators wondered if these were all essentially the same. I reminded them this is why they are not qualified to decide who sees what version of the ten commandments. As a pastor, I believe this is my job.
Then we settled into the practical matters, Senator Meyer offered printer paper copies and tape– he would pay for it out of his own pocket. I told him we had enough work to do in the PTO and our educators certainly didn’t need another task.
At the time, I was a PTO leader at Liberty Elementary. And of all the things we needed, ten commandments never came up. We needed money for teacher meals and prizes for students. We needed backpacks and new shoes and more social workers and someone really wanted a popcorn machine.
And last but not least, what would this matter to children who can’t read yet, would you add pictures or the children more fluent in other languages and for the love of all that is holy why would you do this to middle school teachers who will have to manage classrooms of tweens calling each other manservant, maid servant and giggling at the mention of ass.
Pastors as Public Schools
The legislation I believe was even more dangerous was the idea of pastors as "chaplains" serving alongside or perhaps in place of school counselors.
The first speaker of the hearing was not a volunteer or a citizen of Nebraska. He was an Executive for an organization in Texas where this kind of bill had already been introduced—a company that profits from ‘certifying’ chaplains for placement in schools around the globe but now they have their eye on working closer to home.
Rev. Chris Jorgenson and I had not even considered the money trail on a bill like this. So while they were talking, we took notes and she put her librarian skills into use, going full research mode. That company stood to make money and becoming a school ‘chaplain’ is just a little more challenging than getting ‘ordained’ on-line and it is definitely more than $19.99.
When it was our turn to speak, they seemed shocked at Chris’ clarity about the profits they stand to make, their intention towards evangelism that was right there in their mission statement and when she read it into the testimony, the senators seemed to minimize the danger. It’s just good people being there for kids who need them.
There was no definition of what kind of training, ordination, or licensing a ‘pastor’ would need. We live in a world where there are a diversity of training programs and ways people lead faith communities. People are called ministers, pastors, chaplains, and many other things and they may have weeks of training or years of training. They may have degrees from accredited universities and they may have class work from unaccredited Bible colleges or perhaps a certificate from a church for preaching.
I followed Chris, “I have a master's degree in education, and I am not qualified to be a counselor in a public school. I have earned a Masters of Divinity and I, like most clergy, am not qualified to serve as a chaplain.” Chaplains have additional training such as Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and they are typically in situations with adults who can choose or refuse this kind of support. In a children’s hospital, parents are there to make those choices for their families. When this bill came to the Texas legislature, chaplains across the state organized a massive sign-on letter naming their opposition.
I told Senator Murman again that I did not want public schools to teach my daughter about the ten commandments let alone inviting any other pastor into a conversation about values and her wellbeing, particularly in vulnerable moments. I choose very carefully the clergy that she interacts with and I would absolutely object to the public school and the legislature making that choice for my family. And I noted, he probably wouldn't want me in his district visiting their public schools as a volunteer chaplain either, would he?
A Playbook
This is not an accident. The Congressional Prayer Caucus made a plan and they are following through on it. None of these bills were organically raised out of the state of Nebraska. No one was sitting in their school thinking you know what we need…the ten commandments and some scotch tape.
These bills are copycat bills from all across the country. They have passed in some states and in some places they have not. But they will keep coming back because their playbook says, “It’s important for our citizenry, especially young students, to be educated about these topics in order to appreciate and understand the principles on which our country is based.”
They say the quiet part outloud. They want to influence the most vulnerable and young people as a priority—even if the people advancing these ideas do not send their own children, grandchildren or let’s be honest great-grandchildren to public schools themselves.
But Chrisitan Nationalism doesn’t exist
There are plenty of people who say Christian nationalism doesn't exist. Particularly if the notion hits tooooo close to home.
Amanda Tyler gives us a definition and suggests it may be a good starting place for discussion, particularly when partnered with definitions of nationalism and patriotism. “Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to fuse Christian and American identities. It suggests that real Americans are Christian and that true Christians hold a particular set of beliefs. It seeks to create a society in which only this narrow subset of Americans is privileged by law and in societal practice” (p.26)
Chrisitan nationalism promotes the idea that authority and domination can be accomplished and maintained through force. This attitude that violence is acceptable or even necessary is simply the antithesis of Jesus’ work in the world. This love of violence turns speech into hate speech and hate speech into harm.
Our budgets say we love violence. Our national statistics say we love guns. We love military might. And we mix all of this with language and symbols of christianity. Right now recruiting videos for the US Armed forces quote scriptures and parade the cross through famous movie moments and actual military bombings. We are a long way from “Be all that you can be.”
It is a strategy as old as empire, co-opting the spiritual community for violence, power and oppression. This co-mingling of our faith with power, weakens and destroys the meaning and practices we share. And it is dangerous to everyone, not just christian concerned about christian practice.
Tyler highlights this through a congressman’s quote after nineteen schoolchildren and two teachers died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas during a mass shooting. This mass shooting came days after a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
The congressman said, “The United States of America has always had guns. It's our history. We were built on Judeo-Christian foundation and with guns” (p 84).
That's it. That’s who we are and this is just going to happen. We are Judeo-Christian and we have guns. We see it across the country for decades, we see it in churches that feel called to armed patrols, we see it in advertisements for free AR-15’s along interstate 80. And there is never a time when these “christian’ men want to talk about managing our tools for violence, legislating or limiting them regardless if the conversation is about one lone gunman, a small militia or our elite fighting forces.
It’s not their first Rodeo.
On January 6th we watched the unthinkable. Americans forced their way into our nation's Capital chanting death and gleefully committing acts of violence and vandalism. Regardless of Donald Trump’s efforts to incite their violence for his own and his party's gain, they were actively using christian symbols and scriptures. They were Christians and if violence was needed, they were ready to do it.
This may be the most famous moment but the christian right has been testing the waters, training and organizing, not just for policy change but cultural change that may require force.
Warrior language has long found a home in the Chrisitan conversation. Perhaps when used by underdogs in an occupied country putting on the armor of God doesn’t seem so dangerous. But when you are the empire, when you are the majority easily privileged among the diversity of faith traditions – it is a dangerous metaphor.
We saw this in Charlottesville when white men in dockers assembled to spread hate and ruin the use of tiki torches everywhere. We saw it in action when a man hit a woman with his arm and neo-natzis shouted chants of horror to intimidate a Jewish community during their sacred time to gather.
Just before January 6th, there was the Million MAGA March in November —which is, obviously, a very catchy name—and then the "Let the Church Roar” rally complete with a “Jerico march” in December. Obviously bringing up a violent, bloody siege is much better as a ‘dry run’ for January 6th than an Advent spiritual practice. These events brought threats, harm and vandalism.
In the Name of Jesus
Amanda Tyler went to experience one of these gatherings for herself, to see first hand what she had been studying in the ReAwaken America . She describes how the praise and worship music might have been played any given Sunday morning, folks were raising their hands in an attitude of prayer. And as the pastor reaches the point at the end of his sermon when people are getting excited, he says:
“We're at a time and place where God is raising up an army of faithful believers. And make no mistake about it. We are here for such a time as this.” (That is an echo of the story of Esther.)
And he continues:
“And I'm excited about that. And so should you. Did you ever hear the Christian song that goes something like, “Lord, my enemies have surrounded me, but you have my enemies surrounded”? That's where we are today.
And then, speaking in military terms, General Flynn—who was at the event and who can certainly understand military language—recounted a famous story of a military general whose Marines came to him and said,
“Sir, we're surrounded.” The general responded, “That simplifies things. Now we can shoot in every direction.” You should be proud to be in God's army. We are God's army, and God is rising up some Davids, some Daniels, some Moseses, some Elijahs for such a time as this. And we need more Elijahs on Mount Carmel that bring down the Holy Ghost spirit of fire upon our enemies. We can and we will win this fight in the name of Jesus.”
No really, What Would Jesus Do?
In a series of lectures to Methodist Clergy, Scholar Brian Kaylor, reminded us Christian Nationalism’s foil is always Jesus. In this example the preacher blends faith with violence, sets it in the boundaries of our nation so it can be used by our nation and highlights characters from the Hebrew scriptures as models for modern men.
For as long as Christian faith has had power and meaning; it has tempted nations and empires to use it for control, power and domination. And we also inherit forces of violence, control, and domination. Blending faith with harm, the bible with the state and the cup with the blade has long harmed our faith. We see it in Charlemagne’s forced baptisms, medieval Crusades, Spanish Inquisitions, organized and sanctioned witch trials, European colonialism, Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.
Tyler interviews the great scholar, Walter Bruggemann on this history
“Empires and monopolies generally depend on very anemic gods who do not do anything except smile and bless…And what the crucifixion/resurrection narrative bears witness to is that the presumption of any nation or any empire has its limits and finally cannot defeat God’s intention for an alternative way in the world. So I see the confession of Easter as being pivotal for political practice in the world because it says that God’s will for life and for well-being finally is the truth of the world, and when we sign on for that we sign on for all kinds of possibilities that the nation-or empire does not want to entertain” (Tyler, p 70).
So our job is to keep showing up, keep our faith in peace, connection, and love. Because this harm in the name of Jesus, past or present wasn't an accident. It is on purpose.
And so we need to be intentional, too.
It takes time and energy. It takes resilience and resources. It takes us being together with one another. And most of all, it takes remembering that Jesus named this life as abundant. He took people's needs, real needs, as sacred. He talked about abundance and he practiced it with meals and wine and bread. He talked about healing and he offered it.
In John 10:10 he says, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Not a life of domination. Not a life of subjugation. Not a life of fear. A life of abundance and that abundance is for everyone. So let’s make a plan and let’s make it real, day in and day out. Let’s center those stories of love, let’s re-align our budgets, let’s re-weave our structures.
May it be so. Amen.
For more on this topic, read Gab’s “Campus Ministry Blessing” article.